Yes, you can sue for emotional distress in Australia, but you must prove a recognized psychological injury (like PTSD, anxiety, or depression) caused by someone else's wrongful actions (negligence, bullying, breach of duty), not just normal upset, requiring strong medical evidence and demonstrating a significant impact on your life, often in cases like workplace bullying or medical negligence.
You can expect an average payout between $68,000 and $175,000 for your emotional distress based on the type of claim. Under workers' compensation the average payout was $68,000 in 2022/2023, while the average common lawn settlement for the previous year was much higher.
To prove emotional distress, gather medical or psychological records documenting your condition. Testimonies from mental health professionals and personal witnesses can support your claim. Keep detailed records of symptoms, treatment, and how the distress affects daily life.
To prove emotional distress in court, it's essential to draw a direct connection between the defendant's actions and the emotional suffering experienced. Strong proof, such as medical records, psychological evaluations, journal entries, and witness observations, helps demonstrate how the trauma affected daily life.
Generally speaking, emotional distress cases are notoriously difficult to win. This is because our courts require sufficient and compelling proof that the plaintiff suffered severe emotional stress via the direct witnessing of said event.
Emotional distress refers to mental suffering as an emotional response to an experience that arises from the effect or memory of a particular event, occurrence, pattern of events or condition.
Know the 5 signs of Emotional Suffering
The hardest injuries to prove are often soft tissue injuries (like whiplash), chronic pain conditions (like fibromyalgia), and psychological trauma (like PTSD), because they lack clear physical evidence on standard scans (X-rays, MRIs) and rely heavily on subjective symptoms and documentation, making them challenging to link directly to an accident for insurance or legal claims. Internal injuries or mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI) can also be difficult as symptoms might not appear immediately or show on initial tests.
Additionally, documentation of the emotional distress itself can strengthen the claim. This could include records of counselling or therapy sessions, medication prescribed for mental health conditions, and personal accounts of the impact on daily life.
Symptoms of emotional damage
To sue for emotional distress, you must prove that the emotional distress has arisen as a direct result of someone else's neglect or extreme/outrageous conduct. To prove this, you may need to provide evidence of your suffering. This could include giving the authorities access to your private mental health record.
Legal disputes can be costly, time-consuming, and stressful. Courts in Australia generally encourage parties to attempt alternative dispute resolution (ADR) methods such as mediation or arbitration before proceeding to litigation. If ADR fails or isn't suitable for your case, then filing a lawsuit may be necessary.
Emotional abuse refers to a situation when a person willfully causes or permits a child to suffer, inflicts unjustifiable physical pain or mental suffering on a child, or willfully causes or permits the child to be placed in a situation in which their health is endangered while under their custody.
Defamation lawsuits are not easy to win because the plaintiff must both prove the difficult elements of his or her case and avoid the many defenses to defamation.
In a personal injury case based on negligence, a victim must establish the four elements of negligence to receive compensation for their injuries. These elements are duty of care, breach of duty, causation, and damages.
What do you say to get 70% PTSD? If you are a disabled veteran who is already service-connected for PTSD, then you'll want to focus on showing how your symptoms have worsened in severity. The 70% rating criteria for PTSD include occupational and social impairment and deficiencies.
Medical Documentation and Mental Health Treatment
Perhaps the most important part of proving emotional distress is documentation from a licensed healthcare provider. Testimony or written evaluations from a doctor, psychologist, or therapist can help validate your experience.
Signs of an Emotionally Abusive Relationship
Ten common warning signs of a mental health crisis include extreme mood swings, withdrawal from friends/activities, significant sleep/appetite changes, increased substance use, difficulty concentrating, persistent hopelessness, major hygiene/appearance decline, excessive anxiety or anger, illogical thinking/hallucinations, and thoughts of self-harm or suicide, all indicating a person can't cope with daily life.
Common Types of Evidence
Session records showing ongoing treatment and the patient's mental health progress. Opinions from mental health professionals linking symptoms to the incident and explaining the expected duration of distress. Proof of medications prescribed to manage psychological symptoms.
Intentional infliction of emotional distress is a tort that may include the threat of physical harm or unwanted contact with the intent of provoking fear and other emotional upset in the victim. This type of claim is often included as part of a larger criminal or civil case, rather than the sole offense.